Home » Jazz Articles » The Doors
Jazz Articles about The Doors
About The Doors
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
Doors: Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine
by Doug Collette
Given his fascination with media, the late Jim Morrison would no doubt be deeply bemused at the irony of the release of a Doors compilation on cd (a dying configuration) due its popularity as a Record Store Day 2014 issue on vinyl lp (the configuration that won't die). It's no accident that Bruce Harris' original liner notes for Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine have been retained (nor pure expedience either, though there's no indication these tracks have ...
Continue ReadingThe Doors: The App and Beyond
by Doug Collette
Given the late Jim Morrison's fascination with media, plus the film school experience he shared with Ray Manzarek, it's more than a little fitting The Doors have unveiled their own computer app. Few rock bands have their own app, apart from those centered on a specific release, but then, few have the near half-century history to draw upon, as do The Doors. Subtitled “An Immersive Journey," the app certainly is that. With a dense multi-layered menu of music, ...
Continue ReadingThe Doors: R-Evolution
by Doug Collette
The Doors R-Evolution Eagle Vision 2014 The pristine clarity of the audio and video content on The Doors' Re-evolution, much of it unreleased, lends a ghostly quality to the film, perhaps to an even greater extent than its creators imagine. Not intended to be definitive, this two hour-plus compilation of music videos and conceptual pieces instead illustrates the ever-growing legacy of this iconic band. From the staged likes of the 'music film' for ...
Continue ReadingThe Doors: Live At The Bowl '68
by Doug Collette
The Doors' Live at The Bowl '68 is a remarkable piece of work, as much for the technical wizardry of the recording it comprises as for the pointed restraint on the part of the iconic band as it performs.Arguably at the height of its popularity at the time of this July 5, 1968 performance at the famed Los Angeles venue, The Doors was about to peak in commercial terms, at which point its music suffered as much as ...
Continue ReadingThe Doors: L.A. Woman - 40th Anniversary Edition
by C. Michael Bailey
The DoorsL.A. Woman: 40th Anniversary EditionElecktra2012 In the end, The Doors were a jazz organ trio playing the blues, what keyboardist Ray Manzarek called “The Modern Jazz Quartet of Rock." Flirting with psychedelia on its first four albums, providing an acid soundtrack to 1967's Summer of Love, and releasing a critical career- killing album in The Soft Parade (Elektra, 1969), the band found its roots and made comeback skid-marks with Morrison Motel ...
Continue ReadingThe Doors: LA Woman: 40th Anniversary Edition
by Doug Collette
The two-disc reissue of The Doors' L.A. Woman (Elektra, 1971), released to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original album, documents how this band achieved what The Beatles could not with Let It Be (Apple, 1970). Jim Morrison and company effectively and authentically went back to their musical roots and, in so doing, restored their camaraderie as a band.It matters little whether disc one or disc two is approached first--the former contains the now-classic, finished product, the latter ...
Continue ReadingWhen You're Strange: A Film About The Doors
by John Kelman
The DoorsWhen You're Strange: A Film About The DoorsEagle Vision2010 There are a usually two ways of looking at iconic 1960s rock group, The Doors. One views it as nothing more than a vehicle for front man Jim Morrison, an enigmatic and undeniably charismatic singer with little regard for convention and, to some, a profound lyricist. Another finds Morrison's self-indulgent, self-destructive behavior as nothing more than rampant narcissism; a textbook demonstration of ...
Continue Reading
